When talking about public cloud services with Canadian customers, the discussion almost always shifts to data privacy and security.

For years, the U.S. Patriot Act has ranked as a top concern for Canadian businesses considering a hosted service offering. The Patriot Act’s passing meant that software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions hosted in the U.S. are subject to the law, which allows the U.S. government to request any data housed within its borders. The reluctance on the part of Canadian organizations to move their data south has caused the rise of “Canada only” policies, where IT decision-makers are only choosing hosted services with data centres in Canada.

We’ve heard these concerns and are happy to announce the arrival of ScanSafe’s cloud to Canada.

Cisco will use two data centres — one in Vancouver and another in Toronto — to serve customers throughout the country. The two facilities, which grow ScanSafe’s global data centre footprint to 21 locations, show our commitment to Canadian organizations and in making our service faster and more efficient. For example, Canada now has more data centres hosting ScanSafe than Brazil, India, Australia and many European countries.

Expanding the ScanSafe cloud to Canada will fit in perfectly with organizations large and small who are hesitant to get on-board with any SaaS offerings housed outside of Canadian borders. As an organization, we’re working toward a goal where all the services we offer in Canada will be hosted, and operated, on cloud infrastructure in Canada.

In addition to respecting these “Canada only” policies, the new data centres will also let customers forward their web traffic through the closest Canadian data centre to minimize network delays.

For those unfamiliar with the product, ScanSafe offers anti-malware and access control functionality to businesses looking to protect their employees when they’re using the web. By redirecting web traffic directly to ScanSafe’s data centres before serving up the webpage, the security solution can block access to harmful or inappropriate sites without touching the customer’s corporate network.

While ScanSafe has always been reliable, with over seven years of 100% up time, the move to Toronto and Vancouver will allow the service to secure web content faster than ever before for our Canadian customers and ensure a latency-free browsing experience.

The decision to bring ScanSafe to Canadian data centres also fits in nicely with Cisco Canada’s larger effort to help bring the country back onto the world stage as an innovative IT powerhouse. Earlier this year, we announced our intention to create hundreds of new jobs in Canada and invest over $400 million in research and development over the next five years on a range of projects including improved virtual workforce, telemedicine and energy management.

We are incredibly excited to share this news with our existing ScanSafe customers. We hope our commitment to building cloud infrastructure on Canadian soil will also interest potential new customers still on the fence about hosted web security services.

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About Jeff Seifert

As Chief Technology Officer for Cisco Canada, Jeff Seifert provides technical guidance and direction in key advanced and emerging technologies and go-to-market strategies. His work with many governments, enterprise and service provider customers in Canada and globally is influencing how Cisco brings products to market. During the past sixteen years at Cisco, Jeff has been involved in the successful introduction of many new technologies from the early days of the Internet, through the first deployments of VoIP and IP Telephony through to new transformational video solutions. Through this time he has worked to ensure that Canadian customer requirements are reflected in the products and architectures that Cisco brings to market. He shares a passion with organizations that wish to improve the lives of citizens whether it be serving rural Canadians, using technology to improve healthcare or enhancing education.
Seifert was appointed a Distinguished Systems Engineer, Cisco's highest technical distinction, in August 2003. As an individual who represents the pinnacle of Cisco's technical and sales expertise, he is responsible for transforming customer demand into innovative solutions that companies can utilize in an effective and efficient manner.
Prior to joining Cisco in 1995, he held financial, management, and technical positions at Bell Canada, Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), and IBM Canada.
Seifert has achieved double CCIE certification, including Routing & Switching CCIE in 1996 and Voice CCIE in 2003. He holds a Bachelor in Applied Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

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